The Fisheries Minister claimed that his department does not even have the equipment to deal with these illegal fishing methods. But was that the whole truth?
In November 2017, the Central government had ordered a ban on fishing with the use of LED lights from zero to 200 nautical miles across India following a demand made by the Goa government and a regional political outfit took credit for the order issued by the Centre. Nonetheless, the order to start inspections of fishing vessels for use or installation of the fishing gears such as LED lights, fish light attractors or any other light equipment with or without generator landed/berthed on the jetties was issued in December 2017, by then Fisheries Minister Vinod Palyekar. Fisheries Department did make an effort but they had jurisdiction only up to 12 nautical miles.
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While LED fishing involves the use of powerful lights to attract fish at night, bull trawling is the process of hitching a fishing net between two motorised trawlers and dragging it across a distance to scoop up all sea creatures in their wake. Both means of fishing are banned but despite this the illegal business is being carried out for the last three years and the State has done nothing or very little to curb this. For the last three years the State government has been in the process of notifying rules to impose stringent fines on bull trawling and LED fishing. It had even been announced that government was planning to impose a fine amounting to five times the value of the fish catch netted, but that has simply remained an announcement till date.
Fisheries Minister Felipe Neri Rodrigues made an honest submission that his department has no manpower or equipment to punish those involved or seize the vessels. Yes, it’s true that the department neither has the vessels, nor the manpower nor the equipment to seize the vessels. Besides this, the department has jurisdiction only up to 12 nautical miles. The vessels available with the State Fisheries Department are inadequate to apprehend trawlers that are found violating the norms. Hence it is the job of the Coastal Guard and Marine Police to take over from there. But there is no coordination between the government agencies in this regard. But is this the only reason? Proper coordination between the Coast Guard, Police, Ports and the Fisheries Department can solve the issue. But, there could be more.
Another important aspect is that the neighbouring States of Karnataka and Maharashtra have already banned such fishing and as such, trawlers from these States come into Goan waters for fishing. The main reason for the Goa government never having acted on these illegal fishing methods is because the politicians in Goa themselves were involved in such illegalities. Some weeks ago a fishing trawler reportedly owned by a MLA was seized by Sindhudurg Fisheries Department, claiming that the trawler was violating the norms by doing LED lights fishing. Not just one, there are many politicians, ex-politicians involved in the fishing business and this could be the major reason why successive governments in Goa have failed to take any stringent action.
Sadly, they fail to understand that the livelihood of the traditional fishermen is at stake and fate of conservation of marine resources is in the dark. It is not a charge, it is reality that LED fishing and bull trawling continue. And, if this continues, then forget about fish disappearing from our plates, we may not even find fish in the sea in the future.
